steve said it best from the outset. if the president does not get off to the right start here, it makes it incredibly difficult, if not at a minimum, complicated, to get the rest of his agenda through, not to mention all the foreign policy challenges that will be the backdrop. steve indicated this is the most important thing that will be done. he's likely right unless there's something that we don't want to at all think about or foresee for the next few years, so you have to get this right or get it done to get to the next step. >> but on the specifics of it, steve, why should we be optimistic? who's going to move from their position, and why would they? >> the reasons to be optimistic, you have two prose prose propos table that are robust. the president's made important concessions on revenues. the democrats have made concessions on addressing entitlements, not insufficient for the other one, and what we're fighting over now is this issue of tax rates. and the republicans do have to give on tax rates. it's going to be